The architectural location of storm doors tends to dictate that they exhibit relatively small depth so as to be light weight and easily installable in a variety of applications. They must be sufficiently strong to withstand substantial forces due to opening and closing as well as impact forces as various objects are moved near or through the respective door frames. They must also withstand slamming of the door by the users and withstand strong winds.
The doors must remain effective and operable over wide temperature ranges and humidity conditions. They must withstand the deteriorating effects of variations in weather over long periods of time while retaining an acceptable appearance.
To meet the above criteria, a variety of different materials have been used for storm doors. Known storm doors can be formed of wood, particle board, medium density fiberboard, honeycombed material, vinyl, foam filled styrene, composite wood, engineered wood-type materials, as well as foamed resins. Often a combination of these materials is used. Other types of particulate material as well as other polymer based materials have also been used.
Representative storm door structures have been disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,161,346 and 5,077,948 assigned to the assignee of the present application. Those patents are incorporated herein by reference.
Storm doors usually include some form of a lock mechanism so as to enable the consumer or home owner to lock the storm door and leave the interior, primary solid security door open. Mortise lock assemblies have been used in known storm doors.
One such configuration has been disclosed and claimed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/911,604 entitled Wood Core Exterior Door With Mortise Lock filed Jul. 24, 2001 and assigned to the assignee hereof. That application is incorporated herein by reference. In the subject application, in one embodiment, multiple sections of a stile are combined with a lock receiving container to form unitary stiles. The unitary stiles can be combined with rails or kick plates to form a door.
While the structure of the above-noted application, incorporated herein by reference, is useful and effective for its intended purpose, in some door designs, unlike the door disclosed in the above-noted application, a unitary core is used. Alternately, unitary stiles can be used. In such designs where the edges of the core or the stiles are bored or drilled for the purpose of installing mortise-type locks, potential problems may arise given the thickness of the core or the stiles versus the width of the borings or openings necessary to receive the lock. Hence, care must be taken not to weaken the respective core or stile in the vicinity of where the mortise lock is to be installed.
There thus continues to be a need for storm doors bored to receive mortise locks in such a way as to maximize available cross sectional strength of the door, in the vicinity of the boring for the mortise lock. In addition, in doors with moisture absorbing cores, wood or wood-like cores, it would be desirable to prevent moisture from traveling from a lock or lock cavity into the door core.